Columbia River Run 400K ride report

[jobob]

We don't have very many perms (relatively speaking) in Oregon, but there are oodles in Washington. The guys up there are very active, and have been building them left and right. They tell me that they are ezsy to get approved, so I may just begin building some of my own. I can start them down the block, too. How convenient for me!

We had almost no permanents in the SF Bay area, so I designed a couple a few years to help fill that void. After my bike crash, I wasn't able to deal with the minimal paperwork or occasionally check out the routes, so I handed the good one over to someone else and let the mediocre one lapse into oblivion. Nowadays there are many more in the bay area, which is great. I really need to get off my lazy azz and try a few.

Designing permanents is fun and a bit challenging. You need to space the checkpoints an appropriate distance apart, and put them someplace safe and convenient. Generally they'll be at a store where one can purchase something and get a timed & dated receipt for proof of passage. I'm a big fan of the mom & pop stores, but they can be closed unexpectedly, might not hand out cash register receipts, or if they do the timestamp might have no semblance with reality. So the best bet is to locate checkpoints at larger groceries or at a Starbucks (say what you will about the Star$, but they're open when they say they'll be, they know how to set up their cash registers, and they generally have clean bathrooms).

And if there's any possibility of a shortcut, you need to put in a checkpoint to prove it was ridden the longer way. The previous permanants chair was a stickler for that, I don't know if the current one is.

[Susan Otcenas]

I want to report back on the Nissan thermos that GLC linked to.

She lent me hers, and I was VERY impressed, so I put one on my holiday wish list. I've used the two of them on multiple 200Ks in the interim, and I have to say that I don't think I'll be doing another cold ride without at least one of those along, if not more. They really do keep hot drinks HOT for long periods. So hot, in fact, that you don't want to put the liquid in at too much above drinking temperature, if you plan to drink them in the first few hours. I've burned my mouth several hours after filling them with too-hot liquids.

I've been using commercial hot cocoa in those thermoses, but have started experimenting with a homemade recipe. Malto, electrolytes, cocoa powder, etc. And I definitely plan to try the chicken soup option for some of the longer spring brevets.

I just ordered 2 more bottles so that I can *finally* return GLCs to her. :-)